Letang call miffs Sens GM

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DON BRENNAN, QMI Agency

Dec 29, 2010

, Last Updated: 12:21 AM ET

It’s no secret that the NHL has a different-strokes-for-different-folks philosophy when it comes to dishing out justice, but Senators GM Bryan Murray has no idea why his elite players aren’t at least treated with the same respect as others of their kind.

Murray, who doesn’t get how Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang received only a boarding minor for what he says was a “dirty hit” on Jason Spezza, believes things would have been a whole lot different had it been Sidney Crosby driven into the boards from behind instead.

“I maintain that,” Murray said Tuesday while the Senators practised without Spezza, who is expected to miss about six weeks with the shoulder injury he suffered on the play. “I watch the game, and how calls are, and I think that if that would have been ... I’m not going to use a name, but a different player, it might well have been a major, the (offending) guy would have been out of the game for sure, and the league would suspend him.

“Obviously, in this case, I don’t think they looked at it as serious at the time. I don’t know why that would be the case.”

Murray called the league looking for answers, but was not satisfied by what he heard.

“After review, they’ve indicated the call stands as was made on the ice,” he said. “It appears they thought it was a hockey play. I say otherwise, but I’m obviously emotional and prejudiced about it.

“We lose a valuable player on our hockey team for a period of time. I watched it again (Tuesday) and I don’t understand why that’s not considered a hit from behind. The guy pushed hard, Jason was stumbling, there’s no question. Really, if you look at where his head hit on the ice, it could have been a back injury or neck injury as much as anything else.”

Letang wasn’t even made to pay the price for his indiscretion by an angry Senator, although Chris Neil did try to fight him a period after the fact.

“The most important thing always is to win the game,” said Murray. “If you go after Letang with a guy, you probably get the instigator and five minutes and thrown out of the game, and you lose a good player.

“I don’t think you ever make up for the loss of a good player. It doesn’t matter if you win a fight or not. I think you have to let the other team know you can’t tolerate that type of thing, but winning a fight is secondary, to me, to winning the game.

“We can’t replace Jason at this point. It doesn’t matter if (Letang) gets suspended, or you beat him up in the game or what. It doesn’t matter.”